We're building my almost one year old iggy his new cage. It's 8ft long, 6ft high, 4 ft wide. Next weekend we start the inside of the cage (lighting and such). The cage will have 3 lvls. Top will be mostly basking. My iguana is only about 3 ft long but I didn't want to waste the money on a mid sized enclosure and figured he'd like the extra space, but I have a couple of questions I hope someone can help with. 1. We have enough lighting to light about half of his basking shelf (it's 8 ft, so we can light 4ft) with what we have now. Is that okay until we can afford more lights? 2. How does the temp. at the bottom stay in the 80's if all the lighting/heating elements are at the top? Do I need something for the bottom or will it be warm enough with just the top lighting? 3.Do I have to have a hide box? I have a "thing" against them since my friends sailfin stayed in his til he died. Jabba (my iggy) is pretty fearless and explores when he's taken out of the cage...but it's not his home. 4. How do I ensure he can find his food. This cage is a mansion compared to what he's in now and I don't know how to make sure he finds his food on the bottom and his basking spot at the top? Thanks for any help you can give me and Jabba :D.

Re: New Iggy Cage

Posted by Roger on 5/16/2016, 7:46 pm, in reply to "New Iggy Cage"209.86.226.11

It's all for nothing if you are using screen or mesh for the walls. No matter how much equipment you use, your ig would always be cold and dry.

!. You're doing it right. The heating, UVB and light needs to be pushed to one side, so that he can move to a dim, cooler side of the habitat, as his body dictates.

2. In the wild, the forest floor and the lower shaded parts of the tree trunks are used often by igs to regulate their body temperature. You are creating a heat gradient as it should be, from the right to the left and from the top to the bottom.

3. Hide boxes can help stressed and even tame iguanas. Some like them, dome don't use them. IMO it's a necessary furnishing for the floor of the cage. I made min to mimic a deep crack in rock. Just two pieced of wood joined at right angles Make a v-shaped hide. It should be snug from side to side, and just enough room above so he can crawl in without dragging it. I made mine with 1/8 inch plywood and weighed it down with hot-glued-on rocks or lead. They need to be as long as the total STL (Snout to tip of tail) of your ig.

4. Wherever you put it he will find it. Keep in mind that habit changes can plunge igs into a short season of stress (relocation stress), during which he won't eat. I bet that within three days he will know the entire setup. If you put a kitty litter sized box with 2 inches of water, he will defecate in it. For his water he needs something he can't climb into. A 6 inch diameter dish with 1 1/2 inch tall sides will work for an ig the size of yours.

5: Humidity. He must have as close as you can get to 80% relative humidity. Organ failure, especially the kidneys, happens over a period of years without enough water intake. The result is common: early death. His natural life span is over 25 years but few igs make it even to 15 years. IMO, chronic dehydration is the culprit. You may need three cool-mist humidifiers to approach that. Your heating may need to be increased to handle the extra load of droplet evaporation.

75F is OK for the bottom and one side high up. The hot zone needs to be 95 to 100F. Ive had large adult igs who loved to bask in 105F and even higher. I used to watch that closely, using a laser thermometer to measure his skin temp on top, where the heat fell. But they never hurt themselves, and they always limited the length of time they basked at that temp. Also, he'll live longer because of the exercise he will get as he roams the cage.\

Measure the ambie nt temp of the warm side by pointing the laser at something substantial, like an iguana. A reading of 95 on an ig's skin will read 140 if pointed at a piece of paper in the hot zone.

R

Re: BTW

Posted by Brian on 5/16/2016, 8:20 pm, in reply to "BTW"73.157.165.225

A thing about the thermal/basking that people often times do not think of. Its People will just use 1 or 2 higher wattage basking bulbs and call it good.. When you want to use a concentration of flood bulbs across a larger area.. So if your covering say a 4ft by 4ft area (one of the top sides), then ideally you want anywhere from 4 to 6 bulbs to cover a broader range to fully reach all areas of the iguanas body, so there are no hot and cold spots.. Doing this your going to have to experiment on what wattage best suites you.. As well as the proper lights to use. You obviously need UVB light via either a long florescent tube or mercury vapor light.. But also what they "market" as full spectrum lighting.. But basically 1 or 2 bulbs between the 4.5-6.5 color spectrum.. They commonly sell metal halide flood bulbs at just about any store (and cheaper than pet stores).. These would do you just fine. This is commonly overlooked.

So if your covering say a 4ft by 4ft area

Posted by Rogervan on 5/17/2016, 1:43 pm, in reply to "Re: BTW"209.86.226.19

I agree with Brian.

This is true. But your ig will be on a shelf up high. So as I read your habitat description, your ig will need a four ft. linear heated area. to get that heated to proper hot side temps, as Brian said, you will need to use spot heaters in a line to heat the whole thing. In addition to the UVB tube and row of good lamps for lighting, you may need to use some CHE's (ceramic heat emitters-find them in on-line pet stores) They last for more than a decade, so I see CHE's as a one-time investment. igs don't like extremely bright (harsh) lighting, so the distance between your ig and the surface of the light bulbs should be adjusted to soften the bright white light a little.

It might be best to use LED bulbs for light. That would eliminate the overheating problem, while the CHE's control most of the heat, day and night. I strongly urge you to get a thermostat that uses a remote probe to sense the heat where you want it. Zoomed sells one, but Spyder Robotics makes high quality solid state thermostats that last for more than 20 years. Thermostats are adjustable. Then when the lights turn off at night, the thermostat can control the temperature with the CHE's, and it will be truly dark, which iguanas need at night.

BTW, iguanas on narrow shelves can't turn around. If a shelf is wider but still too narrow, igs break their tails when they make the sharp turn. I'd say the shelf should be 12 to 14 inches wide. Also Igs love to lay on soft pillows. In the wild they lay on each other in small groups.